PUNE, 23 November 2005 — The Congress party won two key by-elections in the western Indian state of Maharashtra yesterday. Congress leader Narayan Rane won the Malvan assembly by-election by defeating Parshuram Uparkar of the Shiv Sena by 63,372 votes.
Rane, a former chief minister who left the Shiv Sena and joined Congress last July, bagged 78,616 votes in the constituency that has long been a Shiv Sena bastion.
Shiv Sena’s candidate Uparkar got only 15,244 votes and forfeited his security deposit.
In the by-election Saturday, the voter turnout was 70.83 percent.
During campaigning, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray had asked the voters to “bury the traitor Rane”, while the latter asked the voters to teach Thackeray and company a lesson and bury the Shiv Sena for ever.
A jubilant Rane yesterday attributed his success to Congress President Sonia Gandhi and the Congress party. Rane also demanded that Shiv Sena working president Uddhav Thackeray resign, owning moral responsibility for the defeat of the Shiv Sena.
“It is the beginning of the end of the Shiv Sena. The downfall of Shiv Sena has now begun from Malvan and very soon it will spread all over Maharashtra. People will now get relief from the terror of the Shiv Sena goons and communal harmony will prevail “ Rane said.
In Bombay, victorious Congress candidate Priya Dutt dedicated her victory to her late father Sunil Dutt, who represented Bombay North-West in Parliament until his death in May. She also dedicated her victory to the hard work and support of her party workers and senior party leaders.
“I believe this is my father’s victory. It is the result of his good will that he earned through 20 years’ dedicated contribution to the people,” Priya said.
“I thank (Congress chief) Sonia Gandhi for showing faith in me and I thank all the party workers and senior leaders who supported me in this venture,” Priya said.
Priya, 39, the younger sister of Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt, trounced her rival and Shiv Sena candidate Madhukar Sarpotdar by more than 171,000 votes in the election held Saturday.
She expressed both surprise and satisfaction that she had garnered 346,294 votes against Sarpotdar’s 174,750, despite the low 33 percent voter turnout in the 1.6 million-strong Bombay North-West electorate.
“It (the victory) has come as a super-bonus to be me. As my election slogan said, people have shown their faith in me this time. The next time I will have earned it,” Priya said.
Talking about her agenda as a Lok Sabha member, Priya said she would now spend time studying her constituency well to understand its problems and finding solutions. “I will look into the basic needs of the people like good roads, water problem, garbage disposal,” she said.
